As jaguars begin to make occasional appearances in the southwestern United States, the Philadelphia Zoo is proud to join the Wildlands Project in welcoming these endangered cats back to their historic range. The Zoo provides significant annual funding to support the Mexico Jaguar Project, but that's not the only way we are working to help make the cats' journey back to the Southwest easier.

The ability of the Philadelphia Zoo to reach a diverse audience more than one million strong will be key to implementing a national awareness campaign focusing on issues faced by jaguars as they attempt to cross the international border between Mexico and the U.S. As the Zoo prepares for the May 2006 opening of Bank of America Big Cat Falls, a new, state-of-the-art exhibit designed just for big cats, it is building in ways to help visitors learn about the Wildlands- Philadelphia Zoo partnership.

One of two featured field projects highlighted in the new exhibit, the Mexico Jaguar Project is a collective, bi-national effort between Mexicobased Naturalia, A.C., the Wildlands Project, the Northern Jaguar Project, and the Philadelphia Zoo to protect jaguar habitat in Mexico and in the United States. It is also a firstrate example of conservation at its best, blending science, socioeconomics, land management, volunteerism, and politics to achieve success.

On a recent trip to Arizona, Philadelphia Zoo vice president for conservation Kim Lengel experienced firsthand the benefits of the existing cooperation between the Wildlands and the Malpai Borderlands Group, a nonprofit formed in 1993 by Arizona and New Mexico ranchers seeking to preserve habitat while still maintaining profitable operations. She was, "surprised and pleased to discover that people with such seemingly disparate interests (ranchers, jaguar biologists, land managers, etc.) were working so closely and collegially to protect jaguar habitat and to amass scientific data to support jaguar protection."

Purchasing acres to protect jaguar habitat in Mexico, joining the network of "Border Ecology Campaign" participants already working with the Wildlands Project to raise awareness and support for wildlife-friendly border security policies, or becoming a member of the Zoo Kids Club are a few of the action steps that will be presented to Philadelphia Zoo visitors in Bank of America Big Cat Falls.

As the Philadelphia Zoo continues to expand its role in the Mexico Jaguar Project, we are encouraging other zoos to join us in a collaborative effort to align our audiences. Every day, thousands of animal enthusiasts and regular folks stream through the front gates of zoos across the nation. Frequent, personal contact with these diverse audiences has allowed zoos to deliver conservation messages to people who may not normally come across them in their daily lives. And, in so doing, they take the first step in fostering in our visitors the principle sentiment needed to protect animals in the wild-a desire to do so. - Kim Lengel, Philadelphia Zoo